Works

WORKS

PUBLICATIONS:

Alli Alli Oh, Toronto, Playwrights Co-Op, 1979 (available through Playwrights Guild). Companion piece - Islands, in Willful Acts

Mother Country, Toronto, Playrights Co-Op, 1980 (available through Playwrights Guild)

Operators/Bushed, Toronto, Playwrights Canada, 1981

Willful Acts, a collection of full length and one act plays (includes The Apple in Eye; Diving: Islands; Ever Loving and War Babies), Toronto, Coach House Press, 1985. (Out of Print)

Willful Acts (new edition) Talonbooks, 1998 - includes additional play, Commonwealth Games.

Endangered Species, (includes The House that Jack Built; It's Only Hot for Two Months in Kapuskasing; Poppycock; Prim and Duck, Mama and Frank), Toronto, Act One Press, 1989. **Out of Print, copies available from author.

In Confidence, Winnipeg, Scirocco, 1994. **Out of Print, available from author.

Numbrains - Hawthorne Society, Reference West, 1995 **May be in print,

reference West, 2450 Central Ave., Victoria, B.C. V8S 2S8, Canada, or available from author.

Blowing up Toads, original production title. Retitled 'Commonwealth Games' see Talonbooks, 1998

Be Quiet (Blue Lake Press) - Novel - Out of print - ** copies available from author

Kissing Gourami - a novel in progress.

Smiling Under Water, (Lazara Press) - short story collection - out of print - some copies available, email mholling@uvic.ca

More than 20 additional short stories published in major Canadian literary magazines such as Malahat Review, Event, Room (formerly Room of One's Own) Capilano Review. Tulips appeared in Best Canadian Short Stories, Beyond Closure (Capilano Review) was nominated for a Journey Prize and for a B.C Magazine Award. A Long Way Back Home is an unpublished collection of stories.

PLAYS:

Numbrains - Vancouver Fringe Festival, 1993 **

Islands, University of Guelph, 1994. Frog and Nightgown Productions, Toronto, 1997. Theatre Unter Dem Dorf, East Berlin, one year run 1999-2000

In Confidence, produced - Firehall Theatre, Vancouver, January 1994, and New Play Centre, Vancouver, April 1994, Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto 1995

Diving, Ship's Theatre, Nova Scotia, 1995

Ring of Fire, Theatre Terrific, 1995

Alli Alli Oh, Englisches Theatre, Thunder Bay, 1995

Ever Loving, 1995-98, opened at the Belfry in Victoria, subsequently produced in Toronto, Halifax, Montreal and Thunder Bay

The Apple in the Eye, UBC Womens' Writers Conference, 1994, University of Guelph, 1995

Numbrains: Vancouver Fringe Festival, 1997

The House That Jack Built, University of Guelph, 1997

Poppycock: University of Guelph, 1995, written for, and first produced by Richard Pochenko's company, Theatre Resource Centre

Poppycock: Produced Battersea Arts Club, London, England, 1996

Blowing Up Toads (premier), Alberta Theatre Projects, Calgary, 1997

In Confidence (unofficial German translation entitled 'Lass' Dir der Zahn ziehen Crissie'. Theater unterm dach, Berlin, starring German actor Walfriede Schmitt, 1998

Islands, Ana McKay Smith Productions, Uxbridge, Ontario, Oct. 1998

Apple in the Eye, Hamilton Little Theatre, May 1998

Prim and Duck, Mama and Frank, California State University, (Davis)

Poppycock, Battersea Arts Theatre, London, UK, 1999

O Positive unproduced play workshopped once with Peter Hinton, once with Brian Richardson; award winner at Edward Albee Festival in Alaska, staged reading at Finborough Theatre, London U.K, 1999

Deep Song, staged reading, Paine's Plough Theatre, London, UK 2001, (later title Spanish Dancing in a Cold Climate)**

Spanish Dancing in a Cold Climate, (unproduced) staged readings by Paines Plough, at the Finborough Theatre, London, England, 2000 and New Play Centre, Vancouver, 2002.

Dearest Precious: unproduced play, 2015, (in progress). A 'love' triangle centred on the lives of Marie Stopes, British pioneer of birth control, her Canadian husband Reginald Gates and her good friend Aylmer Maud, friend and follower of Tolstoy.

** Unpublished. Copies available from author.

RADIO PLAYS:

These plays have been aired on CBC Radio. Some were broadcast internationally.

Join me in Mandalay, Prairie Drive, Wayley's Children, As I was saying to Mr, Dideron, Webster's Revenge, Operators, The Apple in the Eyes, War Games, Alli Alli Oh, Responsible Party, Women on the Wire, Sureal Landscape, The Cloud Sculptors of Coral D (dramatization of story by J.G.Ballard)

These plays were first produced by CBC and some have subsequently been produced by the BBC, and in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Yugoslavia and Denmark. The Woman who talked to Horses, adapted fro a story by Leon Rooke, Smiling Under Water, A Mother in India, The Prince and Rita McNeil (ACTRA Top Ten Award), The Age of Lead (adapted from the story by Margaret Attwood.

TELEVISION PLAYS:

Scene from a Balcony, CBC TV, Airwaves, 1987 (half hour)

The Last Demise of Julian Whittaker, CBC TV, Inside Stories, 1989 (half hour)

Saying It, CBC TV (Performance Series), April 1995, one hour, (adapted from stage play In Confidence) Gemini Award nomination

FEATURE FILMS: (commissioned and optioned scripts)

Breaking through Silence

Smiling Under Water

Memory Board, adapted from the novel by Jane Rule

Me and my True Love

Emily

NOVEL:

Be Quiet, Blue Lake Books, 2004. Out of Print, Copies available fro the author.

SHORT STORIES:

Smiling Under Water: A Collection of Short Stories, Vancouver, Lazara press, 1989 including Tulips, Margherita, Smiling Under Water, Pushing Forty, English-Speaking Aliens, Captured in Flight, The Day I Killed the Pope, Cubbing, Progress on a late summer Afternoon, Lovelinks, Widecombe Fair, Generations (most of these stories were first published in literary magazines, and anthologies such as Best Canadian Short Stories, Oberon Press. Many were finalists in CBC literary competitions. The collection Smiling Under Water is out of print, but some copies may still be available from the publisher. The title story has been adapted for radio and film. Rights reside with the author).

A Marriage in China, in Frictions 2, an anthology of new stories by women, Second Storey Press, Toronto, 1993

Eva in Arles, in the Malahat Review, Fall 1993

The Faithful Orchid, in the Malahat Review, Spring 1996

The Second Change, in event, 1998

Beyond Closure, in Capillano Review, 1999 , nominated for Journey Prize and B.C. Magazine Award.

SOME ESSAYS AND ARTICLES:

Essays on theatre can be found in copies of Canadian Theatre Review,

the Globe and Mail 'Bullied for the way I spoke', 'Deaf Music', in Oxford Essay Anthology, also in 'Going Some Place' edited by Lynn Van Luven

In progress: A collection of personal essays, (see excerpt).

FICTION: In progress - a novel Kissing Gourami.

POETRY:

Margaret has published poems in literary journals such as Canadian Literary Review, C.V2, London Grip (U.K) and also in the Toronto Star.

'Fractals' appears in 'About Face, poets' reflections on an exhibition of clay sculpture by Susan Low Beer, 2012'.

She has completed a collection of poetry 'Desire Paths' (currently seeking a publisher) and is at work on a second collection and a chapbook.

She has participated in two poetry sessions at Sage Hill Writing Experience in Saskatchewan, one led by Barry Dempster the other by Ken Babstock. She is a member of Hoa Nguyen's weekly workshop in Toronto, in which participants study one or more experimental or innovative poet including: Philip Whalen, Lorine Niedecker, and Fred Wah, and share their own poetry written from prompts by Hoa and suggested by the work under study.

SELECTED SUMMARIES:

O Positive: three women who played a part in three different wars in 1916, 1940 and 2001, engage with each other across time. They all have links with Kosovo, and with the enigmatic character of Alma Rattenbury, an ambulance attendant in Kosovo in World War One. She is based on a real life character, notorious for flouting society's expectations in Victoria British Columbia at the beginning of the century. The play has yet to have a full professional productions

Spanish Dancing in a Cold Climate: is set in a Canadian city in winter. A middle-agged career woman juggles her infatuation with a young Mexican illegal immigrant, and her attempst to make her mother at home in her cramped apartment after the old lady is forced to emigate from England. The play awaits a full professional production.

In Confidence: two juxtaposed monologues which uncover the deep friendship and the secrets of two middle-aged neighbours after one moves to the Coast from Toronto.